Smartphones to Overtake Feature Phones in U.S. by 2011 | Nielsen Wire | RealtyGo_blog

The iPhone, Blackberry, Droid and smartphones in general dominate the buzz in the mobile market, but only 21% of American wireless subscribers are using a smartphone as of the fourth quarter 2009 compared to 19% in Q3 2009 and 14% at the end of 2008. We are just at the beginning of a new wireless era where smartphones will become the standard device consumers will use to connect to  friends, the internet and the world at large. The share of smartphones as a proportion of overall device sales has increased to 29% for phone purchasers in the last six months and 45% of respondents to a Nielsen survey indicated that their next device will be a smartphone. If we combine these intentional data points with falling prices and increasing capabilities of these devices along with a explosion of applications for devices, we are seeing the beginning of a groundswell. This increase will be so rapid, that by the end of 2011, Nielsen expects more smartphones in the U.S. market than feature phones.

The Smartphone User

Slightly more males than females are getting smartphones (53% versus 47%) which is what we would expect for technical early adopter products. In terms of demographics, Hispanic Americans and Asians are slightly more likely to have a smartphone than what their share of population would indicate, which is a trend we see in the adoption of other mobile data services. While smartphones started out in the business segment, two-third of today’s buyers of smartphones are personal users.

Loyalty

In the last six months, roughly 77% of new smartphone buyers remained loyal to their wireless operator, while 18% switched to a new provider to get their new smartphone with the remaining percentage made up of first-time smartphone buyers. Interestingly enough, the percentage of people who switched carriers and got a new smartphone is not higher than that of the average wireless subscriber.

This indicates that the portfolio of the wireless carriers in general is robust enough to prevent any wide-spread smartphone flight from one carrier to the other, with very few exceptions. The added bonus for wireless carriers is that smartphone owners are significantly more satisfied (81%) with their device than feature phone owners (66%).

Features, features, features

Smartphones show higher application usage than feature phones even at the basic built-in application level. During Nielsen’s Mobile Insights survey we asked the respondents about features they’ve used in the last 30 days. The good news for the smartphone market is that people are actually taking advantage of the device capabilities.

The percentage of people who use their phone for only voice communications drops from 14% among new feature phone owners to 3% of smartphone owners. The use of the built-in camera and video capability jumps by almost 20% for both categories, due to the generally better quality and user friendliness of the features. Smartphones also often have a better speaker which translates into more frequent usage from about half of feature phone owners to about two-thirds of smartphone owners. Not surprisingly the use of Wi-Fi increases 10-fold from 5% for feature phone owners to 50% for smartphone users to satisfy the need for fast downloads.

RealtyGo supports both QR Code real estate information retrievel and SMS/MMS Text Messaging.

via Smartphones to Overtake Feature Phones in U.S. by 2011 | Nielsen Wire.

Trulia and Zillow offer House-Hunting Applications for Mobile | RealtyGo_blog

Trulia and Zillow, two of the biggest competitors in the online real estate space, are continuing to push into mobile with the addition of more smartphone applications.

Trulia.com said it is now supporting iPad and Android in addition to iPhone. Zillow has released a BlackBerry application, adding to a portfolio that supports iPad, Windows Phone, Android and iPhone.

Both are trying to offer access to information to home buyers wherever they want it, and not necessarily when they are in front of computers.

Being accessible to users whenever they want the information will be critical as both companies may jockey for an initial public offering in the not too distant future.

San Francisco-based Trulia recently said it was prepping for an IPO as it continued to build out its management team, and Zillow was reportedly in talks with investment bankers to discuss the prospects of going public.

Trulia said the addition of iPad and Android applications builds off a base of more than two million mobile users, who visited Trulia.com from their phones last month. That represents a more than 300 percent increase compared to the year earlier, it said.

Both the iPad and Android apps will be slightly different from what was being offered on the iPhone. The iPad app will use the larger screen real estate to display a color-coded heat map that examines the differences in average listing price and sold price within a city or county. The Android app will allow users to add open houses to their calendars and scan QR codes.

Zillow said with the addition of its BlackBerry app, it will now cover more than 90 percent of smartphone users. The Seattle-based company said its services are used on mobile devices more than 6.5 million times each month with 23 million visits to home detail pages.

In addition to being able to search the BlackBerry app for homes based on a user’s location, they will also be able to filter searches by price, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and other information. Homes will be viewable in satellite or street view, and will feature color photos.

Get your Mobile TAG from RealtyGo on all your real estate advertising and signage, enable consumers to get photos and all your listing and contact information while in front of your listing(s). End users can auto schedule an appointment right from the listings, saving you time and offering an immediate action for lead generation by the potential buyer.

RealtyGo – Your Real Estate Listings Best Friend!

Special thanks to Tricia Duryee for reporting.

RealtyGo offers Mobile Real Estate Listings for Best SEO search using MobileURL’s and advanced Web TAG technology.

RealtyGo - Mobile Real Estate Listing on Your iPad

RealtyGo provides an easy to use service for everyone listing any type of real estate, connecting with end users via their mobile devices, infusing the latest technology and business practices for advanced web to mobile communication and search engine optimization. By connecting all your professional information properly and tagging it, your real estate listings and online business practices will dramatically increase and work efficiently for you within the world wide web, increasing relevancy and helping drive more end users and new customers to you, while searching for real estate.

Our Service allows listers to deliver listing information on any property directly to potential buyers through a custom mobile application software that is functional on any Internet-capable mobile device as well as any text message-capable mobile phone.

“The challenge most ‘big box’ real estate company’s face by offering a mobile solution to promote and list real estate is how to instantly reach current clients with the information they need, using the device in which they want to use (mobile, Web, Phone) and how to generate new leads by providing better tools than the competition.  RealtyGo accomplishes all this by user friendly software applications that can be accessed by anyone on any Mobile device. There is no download necessary or modification, our services and your real estate listings are accessible from any mobile device right out of the box.

You can link your mobile real estate listings from RealtyGo to other social networking sites, like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, your blog or professional website, etc.. . RealtyGo acts like a bridge from your website presence to any mobile device, while providing the end user a friendly and easy to use experience. You can be sure that what ever the latest trend or most efficient way of communication is, RealtyGo will provide it for free as part of your MobileURL and Mobile real estate listing(s). We are constantly making upgrades and changes, and will always offer the most current and easy to use methodology for accessing real estate from anywhere with any type of device.

Buyers can leave personal notes about properties,  Auto Schedule an appointment to preview the your listing(s) – which automatically notifying you with the buyer’s name, phone number, email, etc.. , and the property their interested in previewing.

This turns ‘lookie loos’ into leads, creating stickiness, because once a user is able to contact you through the channel they are most comfortable with, they will almost certainly use the same method of contact down the way when needing immediate listing information from a viable and trusted source. Since RealtyGo offers you your Unique MobileURL consumers can find you fast and easily by simple remembering your Unique name or MobileURL you assigned to a property or listing. In the event you sell the listing, your MobileURL is still active and becomes your online Resume, that everyone uses and remembers in order to contact you in regards to your Real Estate profession.

The target demographic for Mobile Real Estate listings is any potential homebuyer, new customer or other business professional with the capability to surf the mobile Web.

Prospects may be young first-time buyer or the middle-aged executive whose BlackBerry has made him/her accustomed to having information at their fingertips at all times, The market is as broad as the mobile market, which is to say is very large and growing. Offer your real estate listings on every channel and cover all the basis, let the end user decide how and when they want to Auto Schedule an appointment to preview a listing, or simple click your phone number or email address to get ahold of you.

Prospective sellers are attracted to technology as well, as it communicates willingness to use new tools and available modern day methodology to market and promote properties making for a more attractive choice for a seller.

Help educate other agents in using RealtyGo for an easy way to show off the technological side of your business. Agents/Brokers can use RealtyGo’s robust analytics to download and either print or email to new customers and even prospective banks you would like to receive listings from. When you can provide actual analytics, which is how potential buyers are getting in touch with you, the area of your listings and up to date reporting on the ins and outs of your listings, banks are going to look at you as a up-to-date, trusted and valuable resource in the real estate business

RealtyGo assigns a MobileURL to each of your listings which allows end users to search for you using an advanced type of search, giving buyers the ability to find ALL your real estate listings, photos, pricing, virtual tours, business website, social networking sites, professional contact information fast and efficiently. End users can searching within major search engines (google, yahoo, bing) or from withing RealtyGo using one easy to remember Unique MobileURL you have selected to represent your mobile real estate business.

 

RealtyGo updates and offers All listing content to major search engines for Best SEO (search engine optimization) in regards to your real estate business. This includes pictures, listing changes, edits and updates, automatically formatted for optimal viewing on any mobile device.

Buyers are able to view all the standard and customized listing information, including photos and Google Mobile map location links, as well as the agent’s e-mail address and click-to-call phone number. Buyers can also easily forward your mobile listing(s) via e-mail or text message to other mobile devices like Smartphones, Flip phones, iPads, Tablets, etc.. .

Beyond MLS listings, RealtyGo also allows users to upload and manage their properties through a Web-based content management system, the same way you would create a craigslist ad promotion, and taking it a step further, giving you the ability to promote your properties within other real estate listing services with our Mobile Listing TAG, ensuring that end users are getting all the content you want them to have and not just the content many services only allow you to share.

RealtyGo works on any Text ready mobile phone or Internet-capable mobile device, including Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry, Google Android, Palm and Motorola flip phones, and do not require any downloads to use or manage.

Try RealtyGo today, and own your own listings and decide what you want the end user to see. Customize your Mobile listings any way you like and edit them at any time. RealtyGo will make sure that all of your most current information is updated and being used efficiently to promote your online real estate business as much as your off line presence. Don’t hesitate, simple visit our World Wide Website and follow the easy automated system that walk your through selecting your MobileURL’s and setting up your real estate listings and professional business information. We have designed our system to be fun and work freely within all other applications for promoting and marketing your real estate profession as a whole. Give the end user what they want, a choice in how they communicate with you in your real estate profession.

RealtyGo – Your Real Estate Listings Best Friend!

Starbucks expands mobile payments to all sites – USATODAY.com – RealtyGo blog

Starbucks Goes Mobile Pay!

Now you can pay for that latte with cash, credit card or mobile phone.

Starbucks (SBUX) , which tested mobile payments in select stores and Target outlets in the past year, expanded the program nationally to all its 6,800 company-owned stores starting Wednesday.

There are a handful of mobile payment experiments in operation now, including Bling Nation in Palo Alto, Calif., and Mocapay in Denver. But this is the biggest rollout to date for mobile payments, says Gwenn Bézard, analyst with the Aite Group, who follows mobile payments. Tech analysts expect substantial growth in mobile payments in coming years as more of us lead our daily lives on our phone.

 

TALKING TECH VIDEO: How Starbucks’ pay-by-mobile app works

CORPORATE PULSE: Executive Suite front page

 

“This is a more convenient way to pay,” says Starbucks Vice President Brady Brewer. “Your wallet or purse isn’t always with you, but the mobile phone is.” Customers pay using apps available on their iPhones or BlackBerrys. Download the app, and fund it with your credit card. When you reach the barista at the counter, hit the “pay” button, show the bar code, and scan it to complete the transaction. Starbucks says it’s working on an app for Android phones.

“Starbucks is using an interim technology that’s available today,” Bezard says. But he thinks the future of mobile payments will be based on a technology called near-field communications (NFC), which embeds a payment chip inside the phone.

NFC is popular in Asia, where many phones already have built-in chips, and retailers to support them. Juniper Research says $200 billion will be spent worldwide via mobile payments by 2012, up from $100 billion in 2010.Verizon Wireless, AT&T and T-Mobile recently announced plans for a joint venture, Isis, to offer NFC purchasing via phones. Testing is scheduled to begin next year.

The success of its gift card sparked Starbucks’ interest in mobile payments. “Customers liked the speed of the card,” Brewer says. About one in five retail transactions are done with the card, and customers have loaded more than $1.5 billion onto them, Starbucks says.

Starbucks began testing mobile payments in 2009. To expand nationally, it had to retrofit older scanners with new ones that could accept the bar code from the apps. “We’re going to see big adoption,” Brewer says. He wouldn’t say how much the changeover cost the company.

If anyone has information at the estimated costs for starbucks to integrate this modality and upgrade their hardware and Scanners, please share. Thank You!

Starbucks expands mobile payments to all sites – USATODAY.com RealtyGo.co

Skype acquires mobile video sharing startup Qik – VOIP – RealtyGo.co

Skype/Mobile_Real_Estate_Listings

Internet telephony services provider Skype entered a definitive agreement to acquire mobile video software and services provider Qik. The transaction is expected to close later this month; financial terms were not disclosed, but multiple insider sources peg the purchase price at $100 million.

Qik’s platform enables consumers to capture and share video across mobile devices, the web and the desktop–content can be shared in real time or archived. The Qik solution extends across more than 200 mobile phones spanning the iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile and Symbian operating systems; in addition, Qik comes preloaded on a series of devices via partnerships with multiple manufacturers and mobile operators.

According to Skype, the acquisition bolsters its existing video calling services by adding recording, sharing and storage capabilities to its product portfolio. In addition, Skype can leverage Qik’s Smart Streaming technology, which optimizes video transmission over wireless networks. Approximately 40 percent of Skype-to-Skype calls take place over video.

via Skype acquires mobile video sharing startup Qik – RealtyGo.co

QR Codes on the side of a Pepsi can?? Wow, now thats BIG…

QR Code and Pepsi Cans

Here is a great image we wanted to share with our readers, a QR Code on the side of a Pepsi can.

Looks good, feels good, however we could not get it to scan..? If anyone knows the details on why the code is so difficult to scan, please leave a review.

Our QR Codes at RealtyGo.co work very well and we are proud of the long hours of research, in order to deliver the most dynamic QR Codes in the Nation.

RealtyGO.co QR Codes work with all  PDA devices, iPhones, Androids, iPads, tablets, BlackBerry, Windows, and all PDA devices. Our system is designed to deliver Mobile Real Estate Listings which are Mobile Friendly, not just a website URL, like most QR Codes. Try the Demo below by scanning the RealtyGO.co QR code to see an example!

RealtyGo.co

Rider Real Estate Sign for Mobile Listing TAG

RelatyGo.co QR Code / Scan for Demo